The International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh convicted the former Prime Minister of the Country, Sheikh Hasina, in absentia for the 2024 crime against humanity. According to the UN, the crime involved the bloody crackdown on student-led protests, leading to the killing of approximately 1400 people. The court convicted Hasina of commanding the application of deadly force against unarmed protestors. Hasina and her supporters have called the verdict politically motivated, and she was not provided with a fair trial and a reasonable chance to defend herself.
Shima Akhter, a student of the University of Dhaka, remembered the day her friends were also killed in the same incident. “The fascist Hasina thought she could not be defeated, that she could rule forever,” Akhter said from Dhaka. “A death sentence for her is a step towards justice for our martyrs.”
The interim Bangladesh government has called on India to extradite Hasina using the India-Bangladesh extradition treaty. India may not, however, comply because there are legal safeguards that are in existence, such as protection against the extradition of people sentenced to the death penalty, as well as concerns about the fairness of the trial. The treaty permits India to deny extradition in case the life of the requested individual is in danger or because the judicial procedure is not credible or unbiased.
Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have been concerned with the death penalty and fairness in the trial process, and demanded that Bangladesh provide due process and evaluate the possibility of abolishing the death penalty. This ruling is a turning point in the politics of Bangladesh as well as a challenge to the state of relations between India and Bangladesh and the international law on extradition and human rights.
The world now awaits India’s decision. Will it reflect its commitment to legal principles and human rights?
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